Artist of the Week

Mars-1

Mario Martinez a.k.a. Mars-1 is a San Francisco based artist and a key figure a growing Bay Area art scene. He started out, like many artists today, in the arena of graffiti art, and he is still very much in tuned with hip-hop culture. He recently created a series of 12 sculptures exclusively for Dj Q-bert's personal collection. Mars has been shown in various galleries across country, most recent at Art Center/South Florida Gallery "We'll Make a Lover of you Exhibition", and he continues represent and promotes the Bay Area scene.

Mars-1 has created another universe, where alien life forms and landscapes prevail. It is a land of color and beauty, where even war is graceful and the edges of reality blur. In an interview with Fecal Face, last August, Mars had the follow to say about his creative process. "The beginning stage consists of splashing around paint and something that might almost resemble finger painting. This is very fun for its lack of control, looseness and opportunity experiment and try something new, with hopefully some happy accidents along the way. At this point, before I pick up a paint brush and start to render, I have a surface that gives off a similar effect of staring up into the sky on a cloudy day, letting the mind create recognizable "things" or objects out of abstract shapes. Once I start to paint, I keep my sketch book handy for elements to inject into the painting and usually a quick flip through it will yield new ideas or variations of older ones. Then one billion hours later, Walla! Finished painting. It's that EZ."

For more on Mars-1 visit his website, and purchase his prints here and here.